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Gabriola Petroglyph Park

Back to our visit and explorations a month ago (already!) on Gabriola Island. I previously featured a few images taken of some petroglyphs we found on one forest trail.

The next day we visited the Gabriola Museum. Though closed mid-week we enjoyed a stroll on the grounds, named Petroglyph Park with its numerous reproductions of many of the petroglyphs found on the Island, with the aim of preventing further erosion of the originals as well as showing less eroded images than those originals are now. Most are flat stones and some are upright, all placed in a natural setting with spreading moss and lichen.

Some years ago, when I became interested in learning more about BC’s own native petroglyphs and pictographs, one of the books I acquired is Gabriola: Petroglyph Island by Mary and Ted Bentley. The back cover states that the Bentleys have explored and recorded the rock carvings of Gabriola Island since 1969. They discovered a major site of over fifty carvings in 1976, then thirty more glyphs at four more sites. They are committed to the preservation and to promoting an understanding of the native culture that produced these and have been very involved in the reproduction project at the Museum.

I’m so thrilled to have at last seen even a small fraction of these works on Gabriola, both the original and the well done reproductions. Perhaps one day we’ll go back to see more.

8 thoughts on “Gabriola Petroglyph Park”

Marja-Leena, I’ve been remiss in not saying before what a pleasure it’s been to see all these wonderful photographs and to read about the island, the rock formations and the petroglyphs. Beautiful and compellilng, and exciting and intriguing to think of what an inspiration this must be to your future art projects.

Hi,
I’ve been thoroughly enjoying your blogs about your visit to Gabriola Island. I am in the process of making a series of 6 journal quilts based on petroglyphs and I was wondering if I could use some of your images on those quilts – of course I would most definitely give credit to you. If you say no – that is OK – they are your images.
hugz
Sally Westcott

Hi Sally, I’m so pleased that you are enjoying this series. Your project sounds fascinating. I am honoured that you ask about using my photos though the images are not really “mine”. I will say “yes” with some concerns. If you checked out the link above about the petroglyphs, at the top of that page is a short piece about the concerns of the elders of the Island’s First Nations, that the images are sacred to them and should not be copied. An agreement was reached later that allows visitors to the museum to make rubbings from the reproductions, as long as they were done by individuals for personal use and not for sale or profit. The same rules would apply to petroglyph images on the museum’s website. And, I would think to any photos as well, I add.
So, as a sign of respect my feeling would be that if I were to use any of my petroglyph photos in my art work that is meant for sale, they would be as inspiration and would be changed, while still acknowledging the sources in some way. Perhaps this would work for you too?
Please let me know your thoughts on this. Are there similar concerns amongst the Australian aborigines and their work?

The petroglyphs you’ve shown us in your photographs are really wonderful. I have a feeling the way you honour the people who originally made them would make them happy. Every little bit we do to show we respect the earth and the blessings of life helps.

I tend to not like reproductions so much, but these seem a bit different–a re-making of what has been almost lost, and, really, another layer of history, this time of our love for the past (with its mysteries) and our wish that it not vanish entirely.